Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God’s Praise

The Plea Repeated

¹⁰ Who is this who forms a god or casts a metal image that can provide no profit? ¹¹ Look at him! All his associates will be ashamed. The craftsmen are merely men. Let them all gather themselves and take a stand. They will be terrified and ashamed together.

¹² A blacksmith uses a cutting tool and makes an idol over hot coals. With hammers he shapes it. He makes it with his strong arm, but he becomes hungry and has no strength left. He does not drink water, and so he grows faint.

¹³ A woodworker stretches out a measuring line. He marks the lines with a stylus. He shapes the idol with chisels. He marks it with a compass. Then he carves it till it is shaped like a person, like a splendid man to inhabit a shrine.

¹⁴ He goes to cut down cedars for himself, or he chooses a holm tree^[a] or an oak, and he lets it grow strong among the trees of a forest. Or he plants a cedar, and rain causes it to grow tall, ¹⁵ but it becomes fuel for a man to burn. He takes part of it to warm himself. He lights a fire to bake bread, and then from the rest he makes a god and worships it. He carves an idol and bows down to it. ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in a fire—over that half he eats meat. He roasts meat and is satisfied. So he is warm and says, “Ah! I am warm. I see the light of the fire.” ¹⁷ Then from what is left he makes a god to serve as his idol. He bows down to it. He worships it, and he prays to it, “Save me, because you are my god.”

God’s Promise Is Sure

¹³ For God made a promise to Abraham, and since God had no one greater to swear by, “He swore by himself.”^{[a] 14} He said, “I will most certainly bless you and make you increase in number.”^{[b] 15} And so in this way, after Abraham had waited patiently, he received the promise.

¹⁶ To be sure, people swear by someone who is greater, and the oath serves as a confirmation for them that ends all disputes. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to show the heirs of the promise with even greater certainty that his plan was unchangeable, he guaranteed his promise with an oath. ¹⁸ He did this so that, through two unchangeable things (in which it is impossible that God would lie), we, who have fled for refuge by taking hold of this hope that is held out to us, might have strong encouragement.

¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul. It is sure and firm, and it goes behind the inner curtain, ²⁰ where Jesus entered ahead of us on our behalf, because he became a high priest forever like Melchizedek.